After the CNN Republican presidential debate last night, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly noticed that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) did not get much air time, suggesting that the senator is too conservative for CNN’s taste.
In a post-debate interview, O’Reilly told Cruz that he got the eighth most speaking time during the debate.
“Do you think because you are a hard-right guy that you are being ignored by the debate people?” the Fox host asked. “Do you think your conservative stance offends them, so they don’t want to hear from you?”
Cruz responded by noting that he was not given the chance to state his opinion on climate change. O’Reilly then noted that he thinks the debates have been too politically correct.
“But what I’m trying to get at is, there’s a political correctness that surrounds the national media, and certainly CNN is part of that — certainly this program isn’t; I can’t speak for anyone else on the Fox News channel — but certainly CNN and NBC and ABC and CBS are part of that political correctness,” O’Reilly said. “Tonight, you’re telling me that you’re getting jobbed in these debates because that political correctness doesn’t want to hear from you.”
In response, Cruz said that the debate focused on tiffs between the candidates.
“The media interviewers don’t like focusing on substance. They like the back-and-forth bickering, and I think the people who are hurting across this country aren’t interested in a bunch of school children,” he said.
Watch O’Reilly’s interview with Cruz via Fox News:
